The St Louis Blues closed within two points of the lead in the NHL Central Division with a 3-2 overtime win over Atlantic Division leaders the Boston Bruins on Thursday, with T.J. Oshie scoring the winner 3 minutes, 29 seconds into the extra period.
The Blues made up ground on idle Central Division leaders the Chicago Blackhawks and moved five points clear of divisional rivals the Colorado Avalanche, who lost at the Philadelphia Flyers.
Boston stayed seven points clear at the top of the Atlantic Division despite their loss, with nearest rivals Tampa Bay being convincingly beaten at home by the Toronto Maple Leafs, who moved within a point of the Lightning, as did the Montreal Canadiens, who comfortably beat the slumping Vancouver Canucks.
Oshie jammed the puck in from the side of the net for the winner, while Alexander Steen and Jaden Schwartz had earlier given the Blues a 2-0 lead.
David Krejci and Brad Marchand scored for the Bruins to force overtime.
Philadelphia goaltender Steve Mason stopped 38 shots to help the Flyers beat the Avalanche 3-1.
Mark Streit and Michael Raffl scored for Philadelphia, who leapfrogged the Columbus Blue Jackets in the Metropolitan Division standings and moved within a point of the New York Rangers.
Mason was less than three minutes from his third shutout in five games when Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon beat him for his 21st goal of the season.
Claude Giroux scored an empty-netter in the final minute for the Flyers.
Toronto goalie Jonathan Bernier made 33 saves as the Maple Leafs beat the Lightning 4-1.
Mason Raymond, Jay McClement, James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak scored for Toronto.
Ondrej Palat scored for Tampa Bay, who lost goalie Ben Bishop and center Valtteri Filppula to injury during the game.
Montreal’s Max Pacioretty recorded his third career hat-trick — despite missing two penalty shots — to help the Canadiens beat the Canucks 5-2.
Ryan White and Tomas Plekanec also scored for Montreal.
Pacioretty became the first Canadiens player to ever take two penalty shots in a game, and he had them both within two minutes of the second period, yet lost control of the puck both times.
Chris Higgins and Alexander Edler scored for Vancouver, who have lost six straight.
Los Angeles’ Jonathan Quick made 24 saves to get the better of fellow Olympic goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and help the Kings beat the Blue Jackets 2-1 in overtime.
Jake Muzzin scored the tying goal early in the third period and Robyn Regehr got the winner 2:33 into overtime for the Kings, who had lost their previous four games, but go into the Olympic break on a high.
Jack Johnson scored Columbus’ goal during a power play early in the first period.
The Minnesota Wild extended their home winning streak to five games with a 3-2 overtime win over the Nashville Predators.
Nino Niederreiter scored the winner with 2:44 left in overtime, while Jonas Brodin and Zach Parise scored early for the Wild.
Craig Smith scored both goals for the Predators, raising his team-leading total to 18.
Washington’s Alex Ovechkin scored his NHL-leading 40th goal with 12:14 remaining as the Capitals rallied from a third-period deficit for a 4-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets.
Detroit’s Gustav Nyquist scored the go-ahead goal in the second period as the Red Wings beat the Florida Panthers 3-1.
Edmonton’s Nail Yakupov scored with 1:38 left in regulation to give the Oilers a 2-1 win over the New York Rangers.
Calgary’s David Jones scored the tiebreaking goal late in the third period as the Flames beat the New York Islanders 4-2.
Ottawa’s Milan Michalek scored his second goal of the game with 23 seconds left as the Senators defeated the Buffalo Sabres 3-2.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
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